In The Event of a Not Quite Platonic Love
by Ciel D'or Serendipite
Summary: A four-shot for the lovely, lovely Atobelover's birthday on the 24th! Focuses on the events of best-friends-since-daycare-when-they-pranked-Sanada-with-pudding-and-the-sandbox, Atobe and Ryoma. AU, of course. Might be T or M not decided yet (depending on the other parts). Happy reading :)
1. Chapter 1

Hey everyone! Okay, so I'm not abandoning that other short chapter fic I just started, but this is a four-shot for MY LOVELY BBY ATO for her fabulous birthday on the 24th! :D

I'm going to put up one part per day so that it will be complete on her birthday :) It'll be in ages but the same AU…I know that sounds kinda weird but it's like...this one is they're preteen years (or Ryoma at least), the other three will be childhood, teens, and adult. They won't be in order either so yeah. I hope the relationship I wanted to display through this fic comes out well. ^v^

Chapter Count: 1/4

Pairing: AtoRyo; Royal bbys

Warning: Nothing much besides cussing for this part. :)

Un-edited. Also, disclaimer yo.

A/N: AU(that's all I ever seem to write huh…) where Keigo and Ryoma have known each other since before they can remember and have been friends since daycare. So…yeah, I don't know how I can talk more about that m'kay sorry. Also I noticed that I haven't put 'ore-sama' in at all (recently?) and I think anybody who's tried to write a fic where Atobe shows up often would be….like….NO. So that's why.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ATO-LOVELY! (also I hope it's okay but I put how old you're turning at the bottom, I'll edit it out if you don't want it up though okay)

* * *

"Oi! Atobe, let me in!" A petite, twelve year-old knocked idly on the heavy door, a frown curling on his lips.

No answer came from the house.

The boy huffed a displeased sigh, grumbling softly about a silver-haired bastard of a best friend.

He opened his small backpack to fish out a thin but sturdy rope, having foreseen the situation. He tied the end to the strap of his backpack and hung the loop of the rope off his thin arm. Letting it unravel slowly, he scaled the humongous tree in the Atobe's backyard like a cat. Soon he was on the branch closest to his friend's window and he hoisted his backpack up easily with a slight eyeroll.

_Honestly, it's like he's _asking_ me to come up here, it's so easy._

The distance between the window and the branch was only a slightly longer distance than a step for his legs, which he took easily, entering the extravagant room. He saw the older boy bent over a desk, writing hurriedly. The twelve-year-old pouted a bit and flicked the back of the silver head. Twice. Three times.

"Brat..." Atobe hissed as he finally turned around, narrow eyes irritated.

The other simply put his hands on his hips in a sassy fashion, eyes narrowed in return.

Atobe sighed heavily, his eyes were tired, his head hurt, and he did not particularly want to get into a fight with Ryoma at the moment.

"Ryoma...I _thought_ I'd told you that I needed to study today, and to leave me alone. I have a final fucking exam tomorrow, so now, it would be nice if could go away again." He said coolly, trying to keep his temper in check.

The boy simply rolled his eyes, scoffing he replied, "Like you even need to study anymore Keigo, you've been at it for four days and you probably would've been fine without even one."

He wrapped his slim fingers around Keigo's wrist, tugging him up to sit both of them on Keigo's bed.

"Besides I've decided something very important, that I need your help with."

Ryoma put a serious tone into his voice.

"I swear to God, if this is like the last time it was something 'important', I will punch you in the face so hard my arm comes out your as-"

"Shut up and listen, Keigo."

"And if it has _anything_ to do with that Fuji kid down the street-"

But then Ryoma was putting on the pout and the sad eyes and Keigo just couldn't _not _shut up because well, Ryoma was really serious this time.

"Wow, I can see how much you trust me Kei. Maybe I should just ask Fuji-senpai to help me-"

"I get it okay, it's important, now just tell me already."

"…So you know how I'll be turning 13 next month right?"

"Yeah…" Keigo answered, slowly still rather confused about what was going on.

"Well I...in my class a bunch of the kids are already dating and I…"

"Are you asking me for _dating advice_, 'cause it sure sounds like-"

"What? No! Keigo, gross…" Ryoma turned to give Keigo a sour face, obviously disgusted, though Keigo couldn't figure out for the life of him _why_.

"Well, what do you want then?"

"I…" Keigo's eyes promptly proceeded to widen like saucers because _holy shit was that a blush_?

Ryoma's face heated up to his ears, before he got too frustrated, "Y'know what, never mind, pretend I never said anything and I'm gonna go home-"

But Keigo couldn't do that now, not after that blush, now he _had _to know what the younger would say. So before Ryoma could even get a foot off the bed he lunged forward and grabbed the boy around the waist, pulling him back to his chest.

"Hey!"

"No way, you _have _to tell me now!"

"…"

"Ryoma?" Keigo looked at the boy's face, only to see the weirdest expression he'd ever come upon. His cheeks were still rather red and his features were scrunched up into something Keigo couldn't describe. He looked angry and frustrated and embarrassed and exhausted but there was a soft sort of look in his eyes that just made everything more confusing overall.

"iwantyoutokissme…"

"What?" Keigo asked surprised out of his concentration.

"I said…I…wantyoutokissme…"

"Ryoma, slowing down and speaking clearly would be nice."

Gripping Keigo's knee painfully and turning around red in the face, scowling, Ryoma hissed,

"I _said_, I want. You. To. _Kiss me, fucker._"

And all Keigo did was stare blankly for a moment, because Ryoma was 12 and Keigo was 14, and they'd been best friends since they pranked Sanada in daycare with the chocolate pudding and the sandbox and had to spent the rest of the day in the corner and their relationship was purely platonic…or at least somewhat platonic.

"_Excuse me?" _

"You heard me."

Keigo sighed, utterly confused at his best friend's request. He pulled them a new direction so they leaned against Keigo's bedroom wall cuddled together in an odd but comfortable position.

"Ryoma…just…talk to me, okay? What's with this request?" The silver-haired boy asked awkwardly as it was rare they had conversations like this, though his words were nonetheless honest.

Ryoma leaned his head back slightly lolling it to rest so his ear touched cold wall and his forehead a warm shoulder, his voice floating to somewhere in between.

"I just…now that I'm old enough to think about that stuff, I…" Keigo could feel the scrunch of the boy's eyebrows against the fabric of his shirt; he absently played with Ryoma's hair as he listened carefully.

Loose fists fell against Keigo's chest in a defeated manner as the younger finally gathered the right words.

"Look Keigo, I just don't want to lose my important things to one of the stupid kids in my year, I don't want to lose it to a stranger, and I don't want to wait for someone I don't know will ever come. I want stuff like this to happen only with someone I trust and that just so happens to be Keigo, the stupid Monkey King. Are you fucking happy now?" His face reddened towards the end as his mind caught up with what he was saying, an attempt at a glare was directed at the elder's direction but was promptly ignored.

As much as Keigo wanted to come back with a snide comment, just out of habit, he couldn't. No matter how Ryoma tried to cover it up towards the end, he really did trust Keigo with his everything and Keigo felt the same with the younger, even if he was a reckless preteen. And there wasn't a chance that Keigo would ever betray that trust.

"I got it. I'll help you." Keigo spoke with a slight nod, and Ryoma grew a slight bit brighter red. "But just so you know, I'm trusting you with mine too."

For the billionth time that day Ryoma frowned in confusion, "Your wha-?"

But then there was a soft press of lips against his, warm and soft, almost trembling but firm, mouths melting with a touch full of platonic love and pure trust. Ryoma let his eyes close and gave part of him to his best friend and took part of the other back and-

And now Ryoma understood.

* * *

Do you guys get the end? Do ya?

There were two other ways I wanted to end it but this seemed right since I feel like the beginning had too much banter in the first place. I don't think this really gives off the right feeling I wanted and I wanted to talk more about the relationship between them since I feel like it's unclear in a bad way and not the way I wanted but…I tried my best... ;-;

I'm proud of this but not proud of it at the same time…it's not what I wanted it to be…but I kinda….like it?...it's weird.

Anyways, love you Ato-lovely! Happy Seventeen! I'll try my hardest to have all four parts up by your b-day! :D


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys~ So, sorry I'm late, I wasn't feeling so good yesterday so I just like….slept the entire day and I woke up really late and worked on this all night so yeahp. This is the childhood part where they meet first, kay?

*****Chapter Count: 2/Fou- Nope, 3 now.

Pairing: Still AtoRyo

Warning: I don't think there's anything... •w•

Un-edited and Disclaimer, ya'll know how that goes.

A/N: I did do some research on kids this age and how they should talk and walk and stuff but it wasn't too extensive so forgive me if anything's wrong please. :)

Also, I just learned that because of time difference is stuff, that Ato's birthday is in like an hour so only chapter 2 will be up by then so...

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY I HOPE YOU HAVE A PERFECT DAY BECAUSE YOU'RE AWESOME AND GORGEOUS AND YOU DESERVE IT!^V^ *partybannersandconfettiwithcake* Also, I'm so, so, so sorry I'm late but I hope you like this chapter!

* * *

A now-three-year-old Ryoma Echizen sat pouting in the corner of the daycare center, removed from the other kids by the television and play area.

Secretly, (although not really since Tezuka was sighing like an old man inside his tiny four-year-old body) he glared at Sanada where he was reading picture books with Yukimura.

Now usually, Ryoma didn't particularly mind Sanada.

Usually he would play by himself, occasionally fend off the few annoying ones who still attempted to be friends with him, and be done with the day.

Nobody minded him otherwise.

However, today, his mother had given him a bag of candies with specific instructions only to take one and share the rest with friends (also, he may have lied to his mother once or several times). And he'd been happily eating much more than one of the candies, when evil, vicious, terrible, tyrant Sanada snatched them out of his hand.

He held them out of poor Ryoma's reach and gave him a whole speech in his limited toddler speech on why it was bad to eat so much candy blah blah blah.

And the _worst_ part was he didn't even steal them for himself! He gave them to the teacher and left! Wasted them just like that! What in the name of grape candies and all things holy was wrong with that guy?

Now Ryoma was angry, and plotting. Now, the tiny boy was ready for _revenge_.

* * *

A silver-haired toddler around the age of four wandered around in the playground outside a small building.

He huffed in displeasure, about to sit in a still swing before taking a look at it and walking away. _Not even a place to sit in this disgrace of a care center._

Right now, a young Atobe Keigo was greatly displeased.

His father, being an extremely busy man was in even more of a frenzy as today happened to be the day of a party that was to be held at the Atobe residence, a party of _great_ importance.

Now, his father always had been too busy to take care of him, that wasn't new, but today all the help was _so_ busy preparing for the _oh-so important_ party that his father told a maid to pack him off and send him to this-

This-

This…_horrid _place known as his …'daycare center'.

Keigo had been here before of course, but the occasion was rare. The last time had been months ago, and the experience was not fun at all.

Thinking back, Keigo shuddered remembering being stuck in that room full of tons of little _barbarians _for hours. Today, he just so happened to get stuck with that again.

He couldn't believe his luck.

He hovered outside the door of the building still reluctant to actually _begin_ the torture. And that was the moment he saw a sneaky pair of tiny legs slip under the turtle stone on the playground from the back door.

The young boy was happy to have any distraction from his task at hand so he followed eagerly (though he was careful not to touch the turtle leaned down).

Inside was a tiny boy with big gold eyes and green-black hair. But what struck him the most was that upon seeing him the boy glared intensely, and Keigo couldn't lie…he was just slightly affected by that.

He opened his mouth to speak but he was immediately shushed by the younger.

"I dunno you, but if ya gon follow you gotta shhh" The tiny one said still glaring and with some hand gestures. His voice was soft and slightly girlish but held a sass and defiance to it that the shush-ed boy found somewhat promising.

However, he still wanted to argue about this who-shushes-who deal but then again since he didn't know exactly what the other boy was doing yet, and he _definitely_ didn't feel like going inside yet, he figured he would hold off until he got more info.

The smaller boy quickly crawled over to the sand-box and Keigo followed, walking of course. He watched curiously as small, slightly chubby hands began shoving sand into a small bag.

"Ne, what's your name?" Keigo asked as he realized he hadn't yet.

"…Echi…zen…" The boy seemed to struggle for a moment, "Wy…Ryo-ma"

"Ryoma huh…"Keigo smiled slightly, "Mine's Atobe Keigo."

The boy just made a sound in return as he finished with the sand.

"All done." He said quietly, standing (Keigo was somewhat pleased with how petite he was in full height). He then began to walk to the back door again and Keigo followed less willingly as they were now going inside. He kept going though…he wasn't really sure why but he kinda liked the kid.

Suddenly the younger boy whipped around and looked him in the eye, still with a frown, though less severe, and speaking in a whisper as if it were life or death,

"Can't get catched ok? Reeeally ssh…." He nodded at the end slightly and Keigo almost felt like it _were_ life or death the way he said it.

They snuck through like ninjas to the snack preparation room, quiet as they could be, although Keigo was unable to keep in a few mutterings about dirty toddler germs and the like before he got shushed.

However once they got to the room, little Ryoma was faced with a problem he had not foreseen.

Although Sanada's snacktime bag was conveniently placed near the edge as his name started with 'S', Ryoma hadn't realized that he would be too _short _to grasp it.

"Goulash…" he whispered punching a small fist to his hand in frustration, "it's a big kid table…"

"Which one d'you need?" Keigo asked having figured out his quandary.

Ryoma looked over and when he realized that the other was in fact quite a few inches taller than him, had trouble hiding his smile. For a second, he'd thought his plan would fall through.

He pointed eagerly to Sanada's, giggling a little deviously as the silver-head stood on his toes to get the bag.

Passing it to Ryoma, he watched as the boy poured the sand into a cylinder-shaped container filled with what looked like pudding though he wasn't quite sure. Whatever it was, he was sure Sanada wouldn't enjoy it any longer.

As he put the container back, he couldn't help but ask why the boy did what he did. He didn't actually care much of course, but didn't seem like a pointless prankster.

"Cuz he took away my candies. My favorite candies!" He replied whinily, complete with a pout that Keigo couldn't help but find adorable.

He found himself reaching forward voluntarily to squish the others cheek (an odd thing for him indeed), earning a yelp of protest from the squishee.

* * *

As they left the room to sneak back in the main area before snacktime begun, a small bag left on the counter caught Keigo's eye.

"Ne, Ryoma, are those yours?"

He smiled when Ryoma's eyes lit up at what he spoke of, and the smaller boy quickly nodded a yes as Keigo went to retrieve the sweets.

–

And then, they spent the rest of the time in Ryoma's hidden corner laughing and eating candies as they heard the results of their pranking efforts.

* * *

I'm really sorry if this doesn't make sense…my mind's really screwed up right now because I pulled an all-nighter and it's like 7:30am right now and I've been sick since Wednesday, literally _the exact day_ I started Winter Break. I have the awesomest luck like….ugh, just ugh. I know it's really bad and I apologize. *bows*

***Important Read: **Also, I don't know why this slipped my mind but when I was planning this story it didn't really…register that I'd have to actually….write smut in the third chapter I'm going to combine chapter 3 and 4 so that it mentions the events that were supposed to happen in 3 but I don't have to write the full thing out. Sorry, I mean I'll probably write stuff like that eventually but just with my age and actual level of writing skill right now I won't so yeah. Next chapter is the final one and will be (hopefully) posted on the 24th. Bye and Happy Birthday Atooooo! Love you~ ^v^

AND **Ato-lovely bby** specifically but anybody can- I think you should watch this because it makes me so happy everytime I see it and if you haven't seen it yet and have some time I think you'd like it too: /watch?v=a3bgxXKimGA -(add to www dot youtube dot com)


	3. Chapter 3

I can't believe how late this is, I'm barely making it before the new year jesus ugh, sorry, sorry! Anyway this is the last part and it's really short but I kind of like it as I have it now so yeah…Of course it could be better but…this is the best I could do…T-T

Chapter Count: 3/3

Pairing: AtoRoyal Pair

Warning: There's a lotta swearing sorry sorry naega naega naega~

Un-edited and disclaimer cuz new year folks.

A/N: EVEN THOUGH IT'S LATE HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ATO-BEAR, RYOMA ECHIZEN, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you like~ 333

* * *

When Ryoma is 24 and Keigo is 25, they are still both unmarried and neither has had a partner very long. But in many ways they are successful.

And even though Keigo's dad consistently bugs him about marriage he always brushes it off. So Ryoma does the same.

"Ne, Keigo…"

"Ryoma, get out of my lap, you're shorter than me but that doesn't mean you're not to big to be sitting on me."

"No thanks and shut up, Kei."

"Ughh, so bony…" A slap is heard against Keigo's shoulder and he decides to keep quiet.

"So anyways…it's the end of the year ne…"

"Mmhm…"

"Why don't we just…stop dragging ourselves around?"

"…What do you mean by that, brat?"

A sigh filled the warm room, dimly lit with a fireplace and comfy couches, perfect for the December cold.

"We're both successful and…well I just feel like we should just get a move on and stop ignoring our parents, right? That would be better than wasting my life with my best friend huh…." The boy- no, man now, leaned back against Keigo's shoulder.

Keigo rubbed his forehead with his palm.

"You're so freaking bipolar…always like this, eh…"

"_Hah_?"

"Last time _I_ said crap like that, you fucked up my entire house and were all pissy at me for a week. And now _you're _screwing around?"

The younger turned around and glared at the slightly affronted man.

"Keiiigo…." He frowned, whining a bit.

"Fact is, that I'm happy with the way my life is now, and I'm happy with not giving a shit about our nagging parents. I really don't care about getting my shit together if I think it's already fine." He said decisively followed by a frustrated huff.

Ryoma just frowned a bit more, looking away and biting his lip.

Keigo side-eyed him, "Are _you_ not happy with the way things are now…?"

And Ryoma scowled a little looking back at Keigo, looking him straight in the eye fiercely because Keigo knew him, and he knew he didn't even have to ask.

He knew that the only reason Ryoma was like this was because he was stubborn, because he would hate to just give in to something like being happy.

And Keigo also knew that Ryoma was already happy. He knew because he and Ryoma were connected in such a way that it was impossible for him _not_ to know; they'd been together practically all their lives. He knew, and Ryoma knew that there was no person alive that they were more comfortable with than the other, no person that made them happier; it had always been just them.

They trusted the other with their life, their body, mind, soul…and heart. And everyone knew it. Even their parents, as, despite their nagging, they already knew nothing would work. Their friends knew as well…everyone, just by looking, could tell.

They were each other's first and last.

"No…I…" His eyes softened a little and he relaxed against Keigo's warmer body.

"I suppose…I am happy."

* * *

Ah, first semi-chapter finished but I feel bad about it…-w- Ah…oh well, Happy birthday Ato, I hope you like you're really fail birthday present from me! The main reason this is so late is I could _not_ figure out how to write this for the longest time without making it super awkward / cheesy.

It still kind of is…but way better than it was. Please tell me what you all thought! :D Happy New Year everyone, have a gorgeous 2014~


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